


don't you forget about me

by violetmessages



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Angst, Future Fic, Hurt No Comfort, Jack Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 14:40:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29370180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violetmessages/pseuds/violetmessages
Summary: Time lasts forever. Jack Harkness's memory on the other hand, does not.
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Comments: 32
Kudos: 47





	don't you forget about me

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you Nik for editing! <3

**_100,000,000 years since the last Great and Bountiful Human Empire_ **

Jack walked through the markets of Kesjit Three and smiled at the loud noises of the people, the children running and screaming all around him, the woman in the corner singing old tunes for a few coins - old for them, it felt those songs were just released last week for him - and customers and salesmen, haggling over prices. This was where he loved to be, places where people lived and thrived, felt safe to make as much noise as they wanted, going through their lives without a care in the world. Jack tried to make an effort to come to a place like this at least once every decade - he’d decided to spend the last few millennia fighting on behalf of those who needed it, but sometimes he would lose control, lose sight of what really mattered. 

So places like these were where he spent his off-days. He liked to buy presents for strangers on the street and watch their faces light up in delight. Money was no object, Jack had nothing but time to collect money, currency of all kinds. Nothing would last, anyway. All banks failed, all money degraded, nothing was spared from the ravages of time. 

Nothing but him, at least. 

So it didn’t matter how frugal he was with his money, and he never was. It was more important to see the looks on people’s faces. Strangers though. Jack hadn’t made anything even remotely close to a friend in over a millennium. Everyone left him; it was far easier not to get involved in anyone’s lives. He wasn’t lonely anymore. Loneliness was an emotion he no longer thought he could feel. He’d been alone for so long that human emotions no longer mattered. Nor did the concept of humanity - Jack surely wasn’t one anymore. 

It didn't matter though. He lived, he fought, he kept himself occupied so that his long, long life would mean something. Years and cycles and clicks and blips, however the fashion was to measure the passage of time, Jack would be around to see it rise in popularity and die as everyone converted to a different system. 

He kept nothing but his name, even though it was false. Jack still remembered his first name, Javic Piotr Thane, although he could not remember what it meant, who chose it, or why it was even important. Still, it existed in his memory, one of precious few that stayed. His name, his first name, the fact that he couldn’t die, and that someone named the Doctor wasn’t alone. 

That one was baffling. He didn’t exactly know who that was, although he guessed that he’d remember when he saw the Doctor again, but he knew that it was something he would need to keep in his memory forever. One thought, one fact of trillions, but it was important. 

And it was trillions upon trillions of thoughts that he had day to day. He knew there was more, so much more that he didn’t know, couldn’t remember. His mind was not made for carrying millennia’s worth of information, and he knew there were things, places, people that he wouldn’t know, couldn’t remember, and would never be able to. He wasn’t sure where he’d been born - if he’d been born at all - where he’d lived, what places he’d been. The furthest back he could remember, if he stretched his mind, was about a few centuries. Those memories were hazy, dreamlike, and he couldn’t make most of them out, even if he tried. 

Jack frowned and tried not to think of it. He wasn’t a fan of spending his life thinking about the past. There was always life to experience, new places to go, new people to meet. If he thought about his past, he’d stay there forever. There was no point to it. 

All things degraded in time, and Jack’s memory was no exception. 

Deciding to distract himself by buying the closest item, he pulled up to the nearest stall and asked for whatever it was that the seller sold. Giving four hundred sunne in return - wasn’t that expensive? - Jack received a cup of some kind of brown liquid, one that was hot and bitter when it slid down his throat. He gulped it down fast and asked the seller what it was. 

The seller responded in a heavy accent, “An old beverage. They’ve recently re-cultivated it - it was lost to time from before.”

“But what is it called?” asked Jack. 

“Caffe. It used to grow on a planet from millennia ago - Sol Three, I think? It’s a one of a kind drink,” said the seller. 

Jack frowned as he heard the name. It sounded familiar, and he tried to think back of what it was. There was something attached to that name, something that he’d promised not to forget. Something that he’d sworn to remember. 

A flash of red, a clicking sound, the smell of that caffe, the taste of _someone_. A warm feeling within him, a feeling that he couldn’t quite comprehend anymore. 

_Whatever,_ Jack thought. If he’d forgotten it, it couldn’t have been that important to begin with. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Kudos/Comments are always appreciated!
> 
> Find me on tumblr [here](https://violetmessages.tumblr.com/)


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